Uttarakhand is one of the most remote locations of India. Existing in the Himalayas has its own set of challenges. The foundation and history of a school in Uttarakhand is a story of morale and courage. Mr. Javed Siddiqui, a retired flight engineer from Indian Navy used to frequently drive across villages in Garur Tehsil, Bageshwar District in Uttarakhand for leisure. During his visits, he empathized with the local community and understood that there was a dearth of a English medium school. This resulted in formation of St. Adams Public School. The school was inaugurated on 4th July 1998 with 10 students and 2 rented rooms. Since then, the school has grown tremendously and now houses 700+ students across 10,000 sq mtr area.

 

The excited students of the schools are natural problem solvers and innovators. Identifying to their needs, the school developed a basic exploration lab, but the school needed the guidance and support to make it big. In March, 2018, the school got selected for establishment of Atal Tinkering Laboratory. The ATL in St. Adams Public School was the first ATL to be established across 3 districts in Uttarakhand. St. Adams Public School, under the guidance of District Magistrates, took an oath to support all the schools in Uttarakhand to create a culture of tinkering and innovation in their community.

The next 3 months were full of excitement within the school and the local community. Each student contributed towards the setup of the Atal Tinkering Lab via activities such as local community outreach, word of mouth, cleaning, painting, decorating, researching tools and equipment and many more. Every student is like a gear of a clock, clinging and moving together to make the whole clock tick.

With more than 60% of students who have never seen a train, one can only imagine the hunger for knowledge each of them possesses. And the ATL opened the world of possibilities to them.

 

The school quickly identified that the teachers of the school now have a bigger responsibility towards their community with the ATL, and requested teachers to volunteer towards ATL activities. All teachers of the school were equally excited and volunteered with zeal. They got extensive training on all ATL tools and technologies. The ATL dedicated periods were then added in the school time-table. The students were then trained on all ATL tools and technologies over a period of a semester. Top performing students were then given a chance to be mentors to the local community and schools. Till date these student-mentors have trained 700 students from 7 schools from the districts.

 

The ATL at St. Adams Public school has something for every child, and is open for all classes starting from class 1st. St. Adams students take pride in having a team which consists of a 6-year-old and a 16-year-old student.

Over the past one year, the school has learnt and designed their own ATL course structure, with weekly activities for every class.

The students of St. Adams Public School are now ready to take up community issues and solve them and to achieve the same, the local administration and District officers give various problem statements to the students, to which students try to innovate and create solutions.

 

Through the Atal Tinkering Lab ecosystem, children of Garur have truly opened their cocoons and evolved to become beautiful and thought-provoking innovative butterflies, each of them adding their own set of unique colours.

(Written based on the interaction with Mr. Mursil Siddiqui, ATL Incharge, St. Adams Public School with AIM Team).

ATL Incharge : Mursil Siddiqui
Principal : Mrs. Razia Siddiqui
Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/adamsgarur/